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President Donald Trump signed two new executive orders on the Friday of his first week in office, just after he swore in Secretary of Defense James Mattis. One calls for the expansion of American armed forces, while the other calls for "extreme vetting" of immigrants from countries with high rates of terrorism. (Published Friday, Jan. 27, 2017)

An Iraqi refugee who worked for the U.S. government in his home country for more than a decade was released from detention Saturday afternoon after being held at John F. Kennedy International Airport for about 18 hours.

"This is the soul of America," a gracious Darweesh said of the supporters. "Thank you very much. We know America is the land of freedom, the land of freedom, the land of light. I am very thankful and very happy."

The two men were detained at Kennedy Airport when their separate flights landed, the New York Times reported.

Lawyers for the two Iraqi refugees filed motions in the Eastern District of New York, seeking a write of habeas corpus in an effort to get their clients released, NBC News reported.

Trump's executive order barred all refugees from entering the United States for four months, and indefinitely halted any from Syria. Trump argued the ban is needed to keep out "radical Islamic terrorists."

The order Friday immediately suspended a program that last year resettled in the U.S. roughly 85,000 people displaced by war, political oppression, hunger and religious prejudice. Trump indefinitely blocked those fleeing Syria, where a civil war has raged, and imposed a 90-day ban on all immigration to the U.S. from seven Muslim majority nations, citing terrorism concerns.

The U.S. may admit refugees on a case-by-case basis during the freeze, and the government will continue to process requests from people claiming religious persecution, "provided that the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual's country."

The wife of the other detained man worked for a U.S. contractor, the Times reported.

Meanwhile, two Syrian families who arrived at Philadelphia International Airport Saturday morning from Doha, Qatar, were briefly detained and then sent back on another 18-hour flight, according to a family member from Allentown, Pennsylvania.

The families, made of up two brothers, their wives and two children, were detained by Customs and Border Protection officials after disembarking a Qatar Airways flight at 7:25 a.m., according to Joseph Assali, of Allentown.

Three hours later, the six were put back on a Qatar Airways flight back to Doha, Assali said.